Ever seen an eagle? It is a large powerful bird of prey that flies high. Whenever it flies low, chickens run for dear lives and mother hens crow for their loved chicks to come to the safety of their wings.
Such is the power of the eagle. But, dear reader, what do you make of an eagle that cannot fly- a basic attribute, which is given? Strange? Or, in other words, why will an eagle not fly? I guess you know my thoughts; isn’t this the thought of all soccer lovers home and abroad? Put succinctly, why are the Super Eagles not flying? Isn’t the team full of stars? Why?
Winning games is not just a matter of skills and hard work. There are other factors, among them character, discipline and humility, without which no man or woman can succeed in any venture. Are our Eagles disciplined? That is the crux of the matter and except we tackle this problem, nothing good may come from this bunch.
We have paid lip service to discipline in the Eagles. We have asked those who perpetuated some of the worst antics in the team to clean up the mess. It won’t work because it’s payback time for those masquerading as enforcers of discipline. They were the worst, as players. You don’t give what you don’t have. Coaches with undisciplined antecedents cannot nurture disciplined players. This is the cross that the Eagles will carry in this dispensation, no matter the uncouth methods those in the team adopt. They will be hunted by their past.
It shouldn’t shock pundits why our players don’t play big time soccer anymore. In boxing, Muhammed Ali (aka Casius Clay) towers over Mike Tyson in character and conduct off the ring. Both men were great boxers. Ali was disciplined, unlike the wayward Tyson, annex-convict and spendthrift.
Football pundits are locked in the debate over who the best footballer is between Erantes D’ Nascinmento (a.ka Pele) and Diego Armado Maradona. The argument depends on the generations involved. Put to vote, Pele will carry the day, not essentially because of his sublime skills towering over that of Maradona, but his character. Maradona was a nuisance, especially considering his penchant for sniffing drugs. The more disciplined Pele is still the role model enjoying hefty sponsorship packages that bring him cash. Not so for Maradona, no thanks to his lascivious lifestyle. Soccer buffs would rather compare Lionel Messi to Pele in the future than Maradona, whose heroics left many fans dancing home after matches.
Sir Alex Ferguson (Manchester United); Jose Mourinho (Real Madrid); Arsene Wenger (Arsenal); Fabio Capello (Russia); Louis van Gaal (Holland) et al are enforcers of discipline. They do so by example. Those aspiring to play under these managers know what to expect because of their past. These managers’ records with undisciplined players are legendary. Need I waste space to list their achievements?
They pick players on merit. Their training methods tell the level of their understanding of the game. They don’t chide players in the media. They understand the psyche of their wards and make the best of them even as the enforce discipline. Decisions made by the proven technical hands are not pretentious. What is good for Wayne Rooney, for instance, applies to everyone. What this trend portends in clubs where these managers superintend is that no one is in doubt about what constitutes a breach of the rules.
Let’s not talk about what happens in the Eagles. Coaches still sag their trousers, yet they expect their wards to be disciplined. They wear braided hair, like spoilt high school kids. They loiter around the corridors of hotels when their wards are indoors. They hide under this surveillance garb to receive visitors. We know of a case where one coach and a support staff infringed the rule. But Stephen Keshi chose not to rock the boat by wielding the big stick. That’s okay, but would that be the decision if players had committed the same offence?
Our coaches take issues with players in the media. Their coaching methods don’t convince the players, who laugh behind them essentially because when they return to their clubs, they struggle to retain the shirts they had. Ours break the ranks in camp and don’t speak with one voice. Poor Stephen Keshi. He has taken the worst job in his life. He must understand that he will be criticised. He must rally his forces together to play well. The idea of playing with two midfielders is obsolete and cannot win games in this era where Spain played six against Italy and won handsomely. There is something wrong with Keshi’s methods. He must get a competent match reader. It is clear that his assistants don’t help him with tips. One wonders what they tell him.
Eagles’ coaches have failed to transit from being players to managers. They ought to deal with the finer aspects of managing the players’ egos. And the best way to achieve this is to be fair in team selection, such that when they are in camp, the fight for positions makes everyone to sit up. A competitive camp will compel the errant ones to shun devious acts.
We have seen top-rated players such as Franc Beckenbauer, transit from a glorious career, rising to be the captain of the Germany side and then leading his country to win the World Cup. We recall how he played with a slit to keep his shoulder together in the 1974 World Cup finals against Holland. The Germans won. That was commitment which won’t happen now with our players, although we saw how greats, such as Segun Odegbami, played for us with injuries.
Commitment comes from the patriotic instinct inherent in players. Such players’ adrenaline rises at the sight of the fans rooting for them. They understand how they toiled to get the cash to watch them. They know that victory is the balm for the fans just as it restores the country’s pride of place in the comity of soccer playing nations.
Osaze Odemwingie’s, Mikel Obi’s and Vincent Enyeama’s conduct signposts what happened in the past. It is retributive justice for the current Eagles coaching crew that perpetuated the mafia. Now they can appreciate what other coaches encountered when they played for Nigeria. The Eagles are missing Mikel because the coaches have failed to play three or four men in the midfield. We have boys who can do job.
Soccerstar’s Editor Kunle Solaja still holds Samson Siasia et al responsible for the country’s absence at the Italia ’90 World Cup. Solaja said the Eagles kept everyone waiting at the airport in Lagos, only for Siasia, the team’s spokesman, to storm the place, asking that their outstanding allowances be paid before any movement to Yaoundé. Solaja is livid anytime this group talks about restoring discipline in the Eagles.
My phones were jammed with messages asking that I name those involved in the episodes reported in last week’s “Eagles: Too big to fly.”
The Deputy Editor (News) of The Nation, Adeniyi Adeshina wrote this about his experience with Dan Amokachi, the late Uche Okafor and others (1997 in Ouagadougou, the Burkina Faso versus Nigeria France ’98 qualifying game).
“After the match, since the Nigerian contingent travelled in a chartered aircraft, Chairman of the Nigeria Football Association (NFA) (as it then was) Col. Abdulmumuni Aminu (rtd), asked the journalists in the travelling party to join the national team players and a few NFA officials in the same bus from the hotel to the airport – a short distance.
“But the players, surprisingly, kicked, even when there was enough space in the bus. As the journalists made to enter the bus, Daniel Amokachi physically pulled back Vanguard reporter Ademola Olajire (who is currently the Nigeria Football Federation (NFF) media officer, asking him and other journalists not to ride in the same bus with the team.
“This created a row between the journalists and the players. But Col. Aminu intervened on the side of the journalists who then entered the bus even when some of the players were overtly unhappy and only grudgingly agreed. Inside the bus, some of the players sat alone on three-sitters, preventing others in the travelling party from sharing seats with them. Particularly guilty was the late defender Uche Okafor.
“Interestingly, the same journalists along with some NFA officials and some members of the Nigerian Football Supporters Club had travelled from Lagos, two days earlier, in the chartered plane to pick up the players who had a short camp in Abidjan, Cote d’Ivoire, for the onward trip to Ouagadougou. The Super Eagles won the match, which eased Nigeria’s path to clinching a ticket to the France ’98 World Cup,” Adeshina wrote.
Comrade Sunny Moniedafe can rely on Deji Tinubu’s revelation that he once suffered the snobbish fate from Obafemi Martins. And the list of complaints, Moniedafe, will shock you.
Keshi can restore discipline in the Eagles, if he accepts that the team hasn’t showcased its potentials and Nigerians’ patience is running out. A word, they say, is enough for the wise.
